Mayor John Cranley is trying to find a compromise
over whether early voting will move out of downtown after the 2016
general election, as some Republicans in the county government
have suggested. Cranley called for a meeting with Hamilton County Board
of Elections Chairman and Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim
Burke, Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou,
Cincinnati NAACP President Ishton Morton and Hamilton County Board of
Commissioners President Chris Monzel. The meeting will aim to “discuss
alternatives the City of Cincinnati can offer to accommodate early
voting downtown after the 2016 elections. (Cranley) believes that such a
discussion is consistent with the recommendation of the secretary of
state that there be an effort to find a nonpartisan solution to the
existing disagreement.”

With a $12 million price tag in mind, Cranley remains worried
Cincinnati is paying too much for a downtown grocery and apartment tower
project. But the project is truly one of a kind, claims The Business Courier:
The tower would boast nearly twice the number of luxury apartments of
any other project underway in Over-the-Rhine or downtown. And it would
replace a decrepit garage and establish the first full-scale grocery
store downtown in decades.

A study found Ohio teens’ painkiller abuse dropped by 40
percent between 2011 and 2013. State officials quickly took credit for
the drop, claiming their drug prevention strategies are working. But
because the Ohio Youth Risk Behavior Survey only has two sets of data on
painkillers to work with — one in 2011 and another in 2013 — it’s
possible the current drop is more statistical noise than a genuine
downturn, so the 2015 and 2017 studies will be under extra scrutiny to
verify the trend.

Personal note: This is my last “Morning News and Stuff” and blog for CityBeat.
After today, I will be leaving to Washington, D.C., for a new
journalistic venture started by bloggers and reporters from The Washington Post and Slate. (CityBeat
Editor Danny Cross wrote a lot of nice things about the move here, and
my last commentary touched on it here.) Thank you to everyone who read
my blogs during my nearly two years at CityBeat, and I hope I helped you understand the city’s complicated, exciting political and economic climate a little better, even if you sometimes disagreed with what I wrote.

Mayor Mark Mallory and 3CDC representatives were scheduled
to kick off a grand opening celebration of Washington Park at 10 a.m. this
morning. The $48 million renovation includes an underground parking
garage, concession building, dog park and concert space. A rally against
the renovation and displacement of residents was scheduled for 10:30
a.m. CityBeat’s Mike Breen blogged away yesterday about the park’s
scheduled weekly music series.

But I think any Christian should spend much time in
prayer before refusing to vote for a family man with high morals,
business experience, who is against abortion, and shares Christian
conviction concerning homosexuality just because he is a Mormon.

Any Christian who does not vote or writes in a name is
casting a vote for Romney’s opponent, Barack Hussein Obama — a man who
sat in Jeremiah Wright’s church for years, did not hold a public
ceremony to mark the National Day of Prayer, and is a liberal who
supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.

I hope all Christians give their vote prayerful consideration because voting is a sacred privilege and a serious responsibility.

Supporters gathering Thursday to discuss project

Mayor Mark Mallory will join fellow streetcar
supporters Thursday to discuss how the project is coming along and where
it’s headed.

The event is the monthly streetcar social, hosted by Cincinnatians for Progress.
Organizers expect to pull in nearly 100 people from around
the city to discuss topics and issues surrounding the project. It will take place on Thursday, July 18, between 5:30 p.m. to 8
p.m. at Rhinegeist Brewery, 1910 Elm St., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45202. For
more information, check out the event’s Facebook page.

Mallory, who’s term-limited from running for reelection
this year, has spearheaded efforts to build a streetcar in Cincinnati.
He’s been joined by a steady Democratic majority in City Council, which
most recently approved $17.4 million more in funding for the project
alongside several accountability measures that will require the city
manager to regularly update council and the public on the project’s
progress.

Streetcar supporters argue the project will foster
economic growth and development in Cincinnati, particularly downtown — a
claim backed by studies from advising company HDR and the University of
Cincinnati.

Opponents claim the project, which now stands at $133
million after recent cost overruns were fixed, is too expensive. They doubt it will succeed in spurring growth
and development.

After the press release about Murray’s response arrived at 2:55 p.m., however, current City Councilman Charlie Winburn sent a notice from his council office at 3:39 p.m. In the notice, Winburn announced he “will be available to give the Republican response” immediately after the mayor’s speech.

Winburn’s release helpfully noted that he is “the only Republican on Cincinnati City Council,” in case anyone wasn’t sure.

The concurrent responses are similar to what occurred after Obama’s speech in January 2011. At that time, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was selected to give the GOP’s official response to the address. But U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), then a rising star in the Tea Party movement, decided to give her own response.

Bachmann’s performance was widely lambasted, as she didn’t look directly at the camera but off to the side, and appeared disconnected and halting during her remarks. Bachmann later sought the GOP’s presidential nomination but dropped out of the race early after several disappointing primary finishes.

Murray is a former Procter & Gamble employee who now owns a consulting firm that tries to attract Japanese companies to Cincinnati. The party’s release stated she would give her response immediately following Mallory’s address in the Fifth Third Bank Theater’s lobby at the Aronoff Center.

A Hyde Park resident, Murray ran unsuccessfully for Cincinnati City Council in 2009, finishing in 12th place out of 19 candidates. She then was appointed by party leaders in January 2011 to fill the remainder of Councilman Chris Monzel’s term, but lost election in her own right the following November. In that election, Murray again finished 12th, this time out of 22 candidates.

Council gets six votes to override mayor's veto and continue project

After nearly two months of ups and downs, city leaders on Thursday announced Cincinnati will get a streetcar after all.

Speaking prior to a council vote, Mayor John Cranley
and Councilman Kevin Flynn announced City Council has the six votes to
overcome the mayor's veto and restart construction on the $132.8 million
streetcar project.

Flynn was the final holdout in what some council
members now call the "streetcar six." He was asking for a commitment
from private contributors to cover the annual operating costs for the
streetcar, which consulting firm KPMG estimated at $1.88-$2.44 million a
year after fares and sponsorships.

The philanthropic Haile Foundation lived up to part
of the commitment by signing onto $900,000 a year for 10 years, Flynn
announced. That was enough of a commitment to move forward as the city
makes a broader effort to get all the operating costs off the city's
books, he said.

"That is a huge commitment, folks," Flynn added.

Flynn
also acknowledged that the streetcar could foster new revenues in the
city's operating budget and actually allow the city to take on bigger
responsibilities.

Previous studies from consulting firm HDR and the
University of Cincinnati found the streetcar project will generate a
2.7-to-1 return on investment over 35 years.

Flynn, a Charterite, joined Democrats David
Mann, Chris Seelbach, Yvette Simpson, P.G. Sittenfeld and Wendell Young
in support of restarting the project. Republicans Amy Murray and Charlie
Winburn and Independent Christopher Smitherman voted against it.

Still, Cranley said he will continue opposing the streetcar project. He repeatedly stated council is making the wrong decision.

"I'm disappointed in the outcome," said Cranley, who ran in opposition to the streetcar.

Flynn reiterated his respect for Cranley, despite effectively dealing a major blow to Cranley's agenda.

Cranley "helped me get elected to this position, and I take that trust seriously," Flynn said.

Others were glad the city can now take on different issues without getting mired down in a contentious streetcar debate.

"I am so glad that this issue is done and over with," said Vice Mayor Mann, who voted in favor of the project.

The final decision came at a cost to Cincinnati: The two-week pause of the project, which allowed KPMG to conduct its review, added $1.7-$2.8 million in costs, according to KPMG's audit. The city also allocated $250,000 to pay KPMG for its work.

Once it's completed, the streetcar line will run as a 3.6-mile loop in Over-the-Rhine and downtown.

Updated with results of City Council's vote and additional information.

Candidates agree on much, disagree on streetcar and parking lease

Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and ex-Councilman John Cranley today channeled much of their disagreement on the streetcar project and parking lease when they met for the first post-primary mayoral debate.

For both the candidates, the issues are about where they want to see the city going. Cranley says the city government lacks
transparency and openness as it prioritizes controversial ideas to
support downtown over Cincinnati’s neighborhoods. Qualls says the
investments are continuing Cincinnati’s nationally recognized momentum
and bringing growth to both downtown and the neighborhoods.

Whether the subject was the Metro bus system or bringing
more flights to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport,
Cranley repeatedly referenced his opposition to the streetcar project
and his belief that it is siphoning city funds away from more important
projects and forcing the city to raise property taxes to pay for debt.

Qualls argued the streetcar
project will produce economic growth and grow the city’s tax base, which
the city could then leverage for more development projects. That claim has been backed by studies from consulting
firm HDR and the University of Cincinnati, which put the streetcar’s return on investment at three-to-one.

Cranley argued Hop On Cincinnati,
a trackless trolley system, is a better option. He said the project would cost considerably less
and come with more flexibility since it wouldn’t run on set tracks.

But in a 2007 letter citing swathes of data from cities around the nation, Charlie Hales, now mayor of Portland, Ore., found trackless trolleys consistently underperformed rail projects in terms of economic development and ridership.

At this point, cancelling the streetcar project would also carry its own costs. As of May, city officials estimated they had already spent $20 million on the project and cancelling it would cost another $45 million in federal funding and $14 million in close-out costs.

But expanding the streetcar project into a second phase, as Qualls advocated, would also carry its own set of unknown costs.

On other issues, Qualls touted the city’s plans to lease its parking
assets to the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority as a potential avenue
for economic development.

Qualls and the current city administration originally
supported leveraging the city’s parking meters, lots and garages through
the lease to pay for budget gaps and economic development projects. But
as the city managed to balance its budget without the lease, the focus
has moved toward using the lump-sum and annual payments from the lease to only pay for more
development projects.

Cranley claimed, as he long has, that the deal will have a
negative impact on a generation by shifting control of the city’s parking assets from the local government to the
unelected Port Authority and private companies. He also criticized Qualls and the city
administration for withholding a memo that criticized the lease’s financial details and hastily pursuing the lease with limited public input.

Cranley also implied that the deal will actually lower
long-term revenues by capping the city’s parking revenues at $3
million a year.

“It’s almost hard to respond to such misinformation, quite frankly,” Qualls responded.

On top of an estimated $92 million lump sum, the city
projects that annual payments will start at $3 million a year but
eventually grow much larger. Qualls claimed the yearly installments
would reach $20 million by the end of the 30-year lease.

Qualls also took issue with Cranley’s assertion that the
Port Authority is withholding contract documents for the private companies it will hire to operate Cincinnati’s parking
assets. She reminded Cranley that Port board members explicitly told him
at a public meeting that those documents will be made public two weeks
before they’re signed.

The candidates also sparred on a number of issues typical
of political campaigns: government transparency, negative campaign ads
and rhetoric vs. facts.

But the debate also highlighted the large amount of
agreement between Qualls and Cranley. Both agree the city shouldn’t
increase the earnings tax. Both claim Cincinnati needs to structurally
balance its budget and stop using one-time sources for budget fixes.
Both echoed the need to leverage federal support for the Brent Spence Bridge project.
Both criticized the state for refusing to grant tax credits to Pure
Romance, a local company that is now considering moving to
Covington, Ky., because of the state’s
refusal.

Voter turnout for the mayoral primary was only 5.68
percent. That was lower than the 15-percent turnout for the mayoral
primary held on Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Center and Pentagon, and the 21-percent turnout for the 2005
mayoral primary.

In the past two mayoral races with primaries, the primary winner went on to lose the general election.

Voters will get to decide between Qualls and Cranley, along with City Council candidates and other ballot issues, on Nov. 5.

Babies in Cincinnati don't get the same chance to celebrate a first birthday as do babies in other areas across the country, and Mayor Mark Mallory has entered Cincinnati into a contest that could change that. Today, a proposal Mallory submitted was selected as one of 20 finalists from more than 305 cities in the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge, a nationwide competition designed to propel mayors from around the country to dream up innovative solutions to urban problems and improve city life. It's partnered with The Huffington Post to give readers the chance to explore each finalists' proposal and vote on their favorite. Each city's proposal tackles a different flaw — ours, perhaps, is among the most pressing of the bunch: dealing with alarmingly high infant mortality rates.

Infant mortality rates are typically measured by the number of deaths of babies under
one year of age per 1,000 live births. Infant mortality rates in Cincinnati are at 13.6; the national average is 6 — less than half that.

Mallory puts the issue in perspective on the proposal's page onThe Huffington Post: "In Cincinnati, we have
had more infant deaths in recent years than victims of homicide. Our
community, justifiably, invests millions of dollars, immense political
capital, and large amounts of media attention in reducing our homicide
rate. It's time to start doing the same for our infant mortality rate."

Mallory's proposalwould create an Infant Vitality Surveillance Network, which, according to a press release sent out by Mallory's office, has already been launched via a pilot version with significant success. Here's how it works: When a woman finds out she's pregnant, she's enrolled in First Steps, a care program that maintains a secure database of new mothers and monitors pregnancies.

The competition garnered applications from 305 cities, and Cincinnati was one of 20 finalists selected. If recognized, Cincinnati could win a $5 million prize or one of four $1 million prizes to help implement and sustain the Infant Mortality Network.

"City after city deals with this issue, but in Cincinnati, we are dealing with an infant mortality rate that is twice the national average. And half of those deaths occur in just five zip codes. So we know exactly where the problem is, we know exactly what community is having the issue. ... We're really trying to create a program in Cincinnati that can be replicated all across the country. So that in city after city, they can see the same type of success that we are seeing — continuing to drive that infant mortality rate down so that we are saving babies' lives,"Mallory says in the Mayors Challenge finalist video below.

According to data from 2007-09 from the Cincinnati Health Department, the five zip codes experiencing the highest infant mortality rates are: 45219 (30.4), 45202 (24.2), 45246 (20.7), 45203 (20.1) and 45214 (19.2). For more detailed information from the Cincinnati Health Department, click here.

Watch the full finalist video:

Right now, you can vote for the best proposal on The Huffington Post. This November, a team assembled by each city will travel to New York for a conference, where teams will work together and improve their ideas. Winners will be announced in spring 2014.

Grant will support 50 tutors helping 100 students

The mayor, Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) and The Strive
Partnership announced today a new joint initiative that won a $40,000
grant. The grant, which is funded by Target through the Cities of
Service and Service Nation, will help tutors teach kids how to read by
the third grade.

With the money, 50 tutors will help 100 students in first,
second and third grade in five schools to meet the state’s new Third
Grade Reading Guarantee, which requires third-grade students to be
proficient in reading in state tests before advancing to the fourth grade.

“It all starts with reading,” Mallory said in a
statement. “And there is no better way to help our kids learn to read
than with one-on-one tutors who they can get to know and trust. A
committed adult can make learning to read fun. This grant is going to
have a huge impact on the lives of a lot of kids.”

The tutors will focus on five CPS schools: Roberts Paideia
Academy in East Price Hill, Rockdale Academy in Avondale, Mt. Airy
School, Pleasant Hill Academy in College Hill and Pleasant Ridge
Montessori School.

The new state reading requirement, which was pushed by Republican Gov. John Kasich, has received criticism from some Democrats and education experts. Research shows holding kids back hurts more
than helps. After reviewing decades of research, the National Association of
School Psychologists found grade retention has “deleterious long-term
effects,” both academically and socially.

Opponents might not have enough votes to prevent referendum if project is canceled

Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld on Monday announced he will vote to continue the $132.8 million streetcar project.

Sittenfeld’s support for the project means the incoming
City Council might not have the six votes required for an emergency clause
that would immediately halt the project and make a cancellation vote
insusceptible to referendum.

If streetcar supporters successfully put a cancellation
vote to referendum, the project would be forced to continue until the
streetcar once again appears on the ballot in November 2014. The
continuation would sink more costs into the project as construction is
forced to progress for nearly a year.

Sittenfeld’s announcement preceded a vote from the
outgoing City Council to officially write the streetcar project into
law, which means Mayor-elect John Cranley, a streetcar opponent, won’t
be able to take administrative action to halt the project and instead
must bring the project to a City Council vote after he and other newly
elected officials take office on Sunday.

The two remaining swing votes in the incoming council — David Mann, who Cranley on Monday named as his choice for vice mayor,
and Kevin Flynn — previously discussed delaying the project as council
analyzes whether it should permanently cancel or continue with currently
ongoing construction.

But Sittenfeld equated a delay to total cancellation after
warnings from the federal government made it clear that the city could
lose federal funds for the project even if it only delayed progress.

If either Flynn or Mann move to support the streetcar
project, streetcar proponents would gain a five-vote majority on
the nine-member council to continue the project and preclude a
referendum.

Sittenfeld characterized his decision as the better of “two bad choices.”

“We can pursue a project that has never earned broad
public consensus and that has yet to offer a viable and sustainable
budget,” he said at a press conference, “or we can scrub the project and
throw away tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, forgo a
massive federal investment and have nothing to show for the enormous
effort and expense.”

To explain his decision, Sittenfeld cited concerns about
how much money has been dedicated to the project at this point,
including $32.8 million in sunk costs through November and a potential
range of $30.6-$47.6 million in close-out costs, according to estimates
from the city. Sittenfeld noted that, at the very least, half of the
city’s $87.9 million share of the project will be spent even if the city
pulls the plug now.

“I did my part to avoid getting us into this reality, but it cannot be wished away,” Sittenfeld said.

There was one major caveat to Sittenfeld’s decision: the
operating costs for the streetcar, which the city estimates at $3.4-$4.5
million a year.

Sittenfeld said the cost must not hit Cincinnati’s
already-strained operating budget and instead must be paid through
fares, sponsorships, private contributions and a special improvement
district that would raise property taxes near the streetcar line.

A special improvement district would require a petitioning
process in which property owners holding at least 60 percent of property frontage near the streetcar line would have to sign in favor of taking
on higher property taxes to pay for the streetcar.

“Ultimately, that’s a decision for the citizens,” Sittenfeld said.

If the special improvement district doesn’t come to
fruition, Sittenfeld cautioned that the streetcar project would be more
difficult to support going forward.

Asked whether Sittenfeld thinks some of the people who
voted for him will see his decision as a betrayal, he responded that his
conclusion shows the “thoughtfulness and carefulness” people expect of
him when it comes to taxpayer dollars, given the costs of cancellation.